Western Australia (WA) covers a third of the Australian continent, yet it has a population of just 2.3 million. Conscious of its isolation from the more populous eastern states – or indeed anywhere else – WA has a strong sense of its own identity and a population who are very proud to call this state their home. And well they should be. The state offers an enticing mix of Outback grandeur and laidback living, and is attracting increasing numbers of tourists keen to break away from “the East”, as the rest of Australia is known in these parts.

Perth, the state’s capital and where most of its population is based, retains the leisure-oriented vitality of a young city, while the atmospheric port of Fremantle, really just a suburb of the city, resonates with a youthful and somewhat boisterous charm. South of Perth, the wooded hills and trickling streams of the Southwest support the state’s most celebrated wine-growing region Margaret River, while the giant eucalyptus forests around Pemberton provide numerous opportunities for hiking and generally getting to grips with nature. East of the forests is the state’s intensively farmed wheat belt, an interminable man-made prairie struggling against the saline soils it has created. Along the Southern Ocean’s stunning storm-washed coastline, Albany is the primary settlement; the dramatic granite peaks of the Stirling Ranges just visible from its hilltops are among the most botanically diverse habitats on the planet. Further east, past the beautifully sited coastal town of Esperance on the edge of the Great Australian Bight, is the Nullarbor Plain, while inland are the Eastern Goldfields around Kalgoorlie, the largest inland town in this region and a hardy survivor of the century-old mineral boom on which WA’s prosperity is still firmly based.

While the temperate southwest of WA has been tamed by an increasing urbanization, the north of the state is where you’ll discover the raw appeal of the Outback. The virtually unpopulated inland deserts are blanketed with spinifex and support remote Aboriginal and mining communities, while the west coast’s winds abate once you venture into the tropics north of Shark Bay, home of the friendly dolphins at Monkey Mia. From here, the mineral-rich Pilbara region fills the state’s northwest shoulder, with the dramatic gorges of the Karijini National Park at its core. An unmissable attraction on the state’s central coast – aka the Coral Coast – is the unspoiled and easily accessible Ningaloo Reef, the world’s largest fringing reef; those in the know rate it more highly than Queensland’s attention-grabbing Great Barrier Reef.

Northeast of the Pilbara, the Kimberley is regarded as Australia’s last frontier. Broome, once the world’s pearling capital, is a beacon of civilization in this hard-won cattle country, while adventurous travellers fall in love with the stirring, dusty scenery around Cape Leveque and the Gibb River Road. The region’s convoluted, barely accessible coasts are washed by huge tides and occupied only by secluded pearling operations, a handful of Aboriginal communities, a couple of luxury retreats, and crocodiles. On the way to the Northern Territory border is Purnululu National Park, home to the surreal Bungle Bungle massif – one of Australia’s greatest natural wonders.

The climate

WA’s climate is a seasonal mix of temperate, arid and tropical. Winters are cool in the south and wet in the southwest corner, while at this time of year the far north basks in daily temperatures of around 30°C, with no rain and tolerable humidity: this is the tropical dry season. Come the summer, the wet season or “Wet” (Dec–April) renders the Kimberley lush but inaccessible, while the rest of the state, particularly inland areas, crackles in the heat, with temperatures frequently climbing above 40°C. The southern coast is the only retreat for the heat-struck; the southwest coast is cooled by dependable afternoon sea breezes, known in Perth as the “Fremantle Doctor”.

Brief history

Aborigines had lived in WA for at least forty thousand years by the time the seventeenth-century traders of the Dutch East India Company began wrecking themselves on the west coast mid-journey to the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia), where they sought valuable spices. While some dispute remains about the first foreigner to see Australia, with French, Portuguese and Chinese explorers all laying a claim, it can safely be said that Dutch mariner Dirk Hartog was the first European to set foot on Western Australian soil, leaving an inscribed pewter plate on the island off Shark Bay that now bears his name, in 1616. For the next two hundred years, however, WA’s barren lands remained – commercially at least – uninspiring to European colonists.

France’s interest in Australia’s southwest corner at the beginning of the nineteenth century led the British to hastily claim the unknown western part of the continent in 1826, establishing Fredrickstown (Albany) on the south coast; the Swan River Colony, today’s Perth, followed three years later. The new colony initially rejected convict labour and as a result struggled desperately in its early years, but it had the familiar effect on an Aboriginal population that was at best misunderstood and at worst annihilated.

Economic problems continued for the settlers until stalwart explorers in the mid-nineteenth century opened up the country’s interior, leading to the gold rushes of the 1890s that propelled the colony into autonomous statehood by the time of Australian federation in 1901. This autonomy, and growing antipathy towards the eastern states, led to a move to secede in the depressed 1930s, when WA felt the rest of the country was dragging it down – an attitude that persists today. However, following World War II the whole of white Australia – and especially WA – began to thrive, making money first from wool and later from huge iron ore and offshore gas discoveries that continue to form the basis of the state’s wealth. Meanwhile, most of WA’s seventy thousand Aborigines continue to live in desperately poor and remote communities, as if in another country.

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Driving Highway 1

The 4400km drive up Highway 1 from Perth to Broome, across the Kimberley and on to Darwin in the Northern Territory is one of Australia’s great road journeys. Contrary perhaps to expectations, the Batavia and Coral coasts, Central Midlands region, the Pilbara and the Kimberley all have distinct personalities that become evident as you rack up the kilometres. On some days it’ll seem like all you’ve seen are road trains, road kill and roadhouses, but to compensate there are innumerable places en route whose beauty will take your breath away, and even more that give an insight into Australia that you rarely get on the east coast.

If any single trip across Australia benefits from independent mobility it’s this one: a car will allow you to explore intimately and linger indefinitely. If you want to discover the wayside attractions, allow at least four to five weeks for the journey from Perth to Darwin. Three weeks will whizz you through the highlights; anything less and you may as well fly. Highway 1 is sealed all the way, but to really experience northern WA you’ll need to get off the beaten track and explore, as towns en route are almost without exception lacking in charm. A glance at a map shows the long distances between roadhouses, let alone settlements; plan your next petrol stop and make sure your vehicle is in sound condition, particularly the tyres and the cooling system, both of which will be working hard.

National park entry fees

DPaW (the state government Department of Parks and Wildlife) maintain’s WA’s parks and to enter most parks, you need to pay an entry fee or buy a pass. The DPaW website (dpaw.wa.gov.au) contains details of all passes, which you can buy online, as well as useful information about all of WA’s national parks. You can also obtain a pass from the entry station (often unattended), local DPaW offices and some visitor centres. Note that fees only apply if arriving by vehicle; walking or cycling in is free. Camping in a national park attracts an additional fee.